Cook will come good - Flower

Tuesday 9 November 2010 07:31 BST

Alastair Cook

Andy Flower remains confident Alastair Cook will deliver runs for England in the Ashes this winter.

Cook's two single-figure scores at the top of the order in England's victory over Western Australia amounted to the only notable failure from the prospective Test XI in Perth. Flower appears highly satisfied with their progress so far, and insists Cook - who has struggled for runs since the start of last summer, apart from his century in defeat against Pakistan at The Oval in August - will come good.

"I don't have concerns," said the England coach, who believes Cook still has plenty of time to put things right.

The tourists have moved on to Adelaide for the second of three warm-up matches, against South Australia, before the first Test in Brisbane at the end of this month.

England have no specialist cover to open the batting with captain Andrew Strauss, should Cook continue in poor form. The obvious contingency would be to promote Jonathan Trott from number three, or perhaps Ian Bell from number six.

Either way, England will not want to have to tinker with an inked-in top six - and Flower does not anticipate that will happen.

On the Cook issue, he concluded: "It's one game, two innings. I think he's going to do well."

There were no other qualms about England's performance at the WACA - leaving Flower in optimistic mood as he readies his team for their next three-day fixture, starting at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

"It was very important for us to get that middle time," he said. "We had one middle practice a few days before. But that sort of competitiveness on the Test wicket is important preparation for our guys.

"Again this match in Adelaide will be good experience on the Test square. That will be vital preparation for us."